#machine channel

[valtsv]

i keep thinking about digital ghosts. or maybe digital hauntings would be a better term. the final messages shared between you and someone you no longer speak to, for whatever reason. a webpage, or blog post, or inactive profile on a social media forum that you still return to sometimes, no longer even hoping for something to have changed, just to remember, like returning to a grave year after year. video and audio recordings of people who've left your life that you play back over and over until the tape wears out. in the realm of the more fantastical, maybe a hologram that bears their likeness but only a pale, shallow imitation of their complexity, their personality, or an AI or other imperfect replica built on a lifetime of data collected from them that only reinforces their absence but is all you have left to remember (or replace until you forget the difference) them by. all these records that they existed that will inevitably only last as long as the technology that supports them takes to become obsolete, or the data corrupts and begins to break down, or the archives storing it are no longer hosted anywhere. you haven't cheated death, or the grief that comes with losing someone. you've just prolonged it.

[catastrophic-crisis]

Today, August 2nd, game magazine Game Informer was revealed to be ending, suddenly. All who worked there appear to have been laid off in the middle of working on their next issue of the magazine. Their website is now just a landing page announcing the end of the magazine, eliminating access to the years of online content, some exclusive to the website.

There are various online efforts to preserve both the digital and physical work done by the many talented people who have been laid off.

Fuck Game Stop, who owns the company.

Blake Hester 🧵:

The Life And Career Of John Johanas (director of Evil Within 2) | Three Days With Bokeh Game Studio (Slitterhead) | Exploring Caves With The Creator Of Spelunky (hosted on Game Informer YouTube) | The Bully 2 You'll Never Play | Life and death With Ikumi Nakamura (formerly Tango Gameworks, now Unseen) | Exploring Shibuya with Tango Gameworks | The Making of Humanity, 2023's Best Puzzle Game (hosted on Game Informer YouTube)

[rotten-vision]

some things change, some stay the same

[sleepy-writes-stuff]

(short continuation to the prompt I wrote, which is linked below. I thought I was done with this, but then @victoria-has-no-secret and @bluerosefox had some ideas to incorporate into it. Screenshots of said ideas are also below but are sprinkled throughout the post too.)

(*) = Me building off of other ideas

TW: mentions of animal death

← previous

✦

After the whole fiasco with the Justice League, Danny gets an idea. Not very many people actually know about Laika, at least from what he could see of the majority of the Justice League who had never learned about her. Although, to be fair, a lot of them come from different planets. Either way, it gives Danny the idea to create a YouTube channel starring Laika to teach the people of Earth about the pup.

The channel immediately garners attention from all around the world, and even winds up on a couple of news stations too! It grows so much that Danny decides to expand further than just Laika, but to the other things that were sent into space in the quest for knowledge: The space rovers as well as many other animals.

Laika even leads Danny to them as he ventures further into space with a specially made camera that can withstand traversing space and the differing atmosphereic conditions of other planets. He manages to find every single one of them, discovering that maybe Laika hadn't been as alone as he'd first thought as he watches and records her playing with the spirits (imprints?) of the rovers, chimps, mice, and many other animals haunting the endless void of the cosmos.

People back on earth are going wild with the knowledge that their hopes, thoughts, and feelings helped to give life to beings that had long been dead/stopped working. They have no idea what to feel about this new information except an amalgamation of pure awe, curiosity, joy, guilt, and sadness. They still mourned the loss of Laika, the rovers, and everyone before and after them, but knowing that their existence wasn't completely lost soothed an ache many didn't know they carried with them when they were there to witness the beginning of such astronomical leaps in technology.

To also know that out of the many stars shooting across the sky, one of them might be Laika happily racing amongst the stars with her friends brought many to tears. At every opportunity, they wished for the sweet pup's happiness and the continuing health of their own furry companions down on Earth with them. They also wished that upon the eventuality that they have to part with their companions that maybe a few of them would join Laika and her friends in stars to keep them company for many years to come.

Although many of these wishes were heard by Desiree, she refused to touch such hopeful and well-meaning wishes for fear of twisting them in unseemly ways, allowing them to form on their own. The other ghosts among Danny's rouges even made a deal with each other to not interfere or attack the town when Danny was recording his videos out in space.

It was beyond bad manners to interfere with another ghost's obsession, after all.

✦

I'm gonna go cry some more. I've learned more about the progress of space exploration in the past couple hours than I probably should. This is the last thing I'm adding onto this prompt. If any of y'all wanna continue it, be my guest!

Notes:

(*) One more thing to add. Where are the ghost hunters/Guys in White during all of this? If they start making a fuss over Phantom and all the ghost animals, do they get a bunch of civilians raiding their government facilities and causing them bodily harm? What's happening with the Justice League? Are they sitting back and eating popcorn while all this goes down? Who knows. :)

[cringefaecompilation]

the age differences in the critical role cast are funny because you have matthew mercer (b. 1982) and marisha ray (b. 1989), both of which are young (comparatively) enough to lived through the fourth and fifth console generations and are fully locked into how how early 2000s and 2010s gaming worked, what the latest consoles are now, and matt even used to be a QA tester on video games.

and then we've got sam riegel (b. 1976), who probably last touched an arcade cabinet in 1993, trying to play super smash brothers ultimate:

[are-we-really-doing-this]

Will someone please tell them to stop flirting in public.

[thatonecrookedsmile]

"Tombstone Picnic,the infamous 'Lost Ending' Bendy cartoon from the early days of the studio. The ending has not been seen since the cartoon's first run in 1929 and no copies are known to exist."

-Nostalgia-

----- Bendy comes face to face with [REDACTED]!

Another year, another Ink Demonth event. Let's see if I can get past the first 10 days again (I kind of doubt it, but let's not get ahead of ourselves).

Starting with a very interesting topic! As far as in-universe things go, I think the simplest interpretation would be: a look back at simpler times. Before the ink craze, the damn machine and all that. The times when (I presume) the only concern was getting the shorts finished on time. Nostalgia for a bygone era. It was more the metaphorical side that I was aiming for when I was making this drawing.

I don't really like to use this term when I reminisce about things that, in my opinion, are very "recent", but since it's been 7 years (more than half a decade, jeez), I think using "nostalgia" in this case is allowed in my view.

It's not surprising to say that I'm nostalgic for the times of 2017-2018. (In terms of Bendy, of course, not in terms of life in general, lmao) It's been so long... On one hand, similar to the in-universe reason, it was simpler times, I admit. Things weren't so…crazy, so to speak. And on the other hand, it's because of the good memories of that time (again, in terms of this franchise). The wait between chapters, the teasers, the theories, and the in-betweens. And what I wanted to show here, one of my top favorite moments that I remember the most, was the release of the reveal trailer for BATIM Chapter 3.

I was excited that day! I had just gotten home when the trailer dropped and I immediately went to watch it. An actual in-universe Bendy cartoon! Bendy and Boris animated! Mysterious Shadow!?!? and then BOOM, game stuff. Henry running in a hallway, silhouettes of new characters, Bendy statue, Miracle Station? and BOO, the Ink Demon jumping in the station! Alice humming, and OOOHHHHH RELEASING IN SEPTEMBER, LETS GOOO.

It was really cool. I would not only say this is one of my favorite moments, but also that that trailer is my favorite trailer we've had. Yeah, in the end the "gameplay" in the second half of the video was just a cutscene running, and the "scene" that happened in the trailer doesn't actually happen in the game. Hell, the "hallway trailer" wasn't even in the release! But, the cutscene is still pretty cool anyway, plus, even though the scene doesn't literally happen in the game, it still teased elements that were in the game without giving away spoilers, so the trailer wasn't a total lie at the end of the day.

But yeah, nostalgia. A hell of a drug, but at the same time, a nice time machine,I say.

On an unrelated note, hey, prompt for day 1, and I'm not that late! Sure, I'm posting this after midnight, so it's not day 1 anymore, but still, compared to other years, I'm very up to date with the event. After all, 1-2 hours late isn't that late compared to 1 week. But of course, prompt 2 is going to be another story entirely, but in the meantime? I'll enjoy this achievement.

Have a great event this year folks!

[drama-glob]

Incorrect BH6 Quotes

(Wasabi is trying to convince Fred that going to the museum will be fun place to hang out, but Fred is hesitant)

Fred (Asks with a quirked eyebrow): Are you sure?

Wasabi (Emphatically tells Fred): I'm positive!

Fred (Frowns and fires back with): Only fools are positive.

Wasabi (Smugly replies): You sure?

Fred (Avidly says): I'm positive! (Realization hits him and he smacks himself in the face) I fell for it! I should have known!

___________________________________________________________

(Globby is helping BH6 by going undercover as a robot along with Baymax and Mini-Max)

Globby (Transforms and starts making clunky movements): Beep-bop. Meep-morp.

Mini-Max (Tilts his head): What are you doing?

Globby (Continues his actions): I am being a robot.

Mini-Max (Hops onto Globby's shoulder and bluntly tells him): Just to educate you, that is a hurtful stereotype.

Globby (Abruptly stops and says): Sorry.

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔗𝔞𝔩𝔢𝔰 𝔣𝔯𝔬𝔪 𝔱𝔥𝔢 ℭ𝔯𝔶𝔭𝔱

[catboyolli]

Tommi's "happy birthday!" pics from his bandmates 💖

from blindchannel's instagram stories

from joelhokka's instagram stories

from joonasbc's instagram stories

from alexmattson's instragram stories

bonus pic from seiskaofficial's post

[doamarierose-honoka]

This news might be disappointing for SEGA fans who care about the preservation of the companies’ rich history of video games ranging from arcade to consoles, including myself and fellow SEGAbits writers. As of now, SEGA plans to delist a selection of games and bundles from virtual stores across gaming platforms including Steam, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Playstation starting on December 6th at 11:59pm PST.

If you happen to own the games on the following platforms, they will still be available in your library. You can still get them all for very good prices, so be sure not to miss out on the opportunity. Do you all think that this is a bad decision from SEGA or do you think they might have something planned for the titles down the line? Let us know in the comments below and hit the next section of the article to see the list of games that are planned to be delisted.

Here are the following games that are planned to be delisted:

Steam

Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle

Alien Soldier

Alien Storm

Altered Beast

Beyond Oasis

Bio-Hazard Battle

Bonanza Bros

Columns

Columns III

Comix Zone

Crack Down

Crazy Taxi

Decap Attack

Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine

Dreamcast Collection Bundle

Dynamite Headdy

Ecco Jr.

Ecco the Dolphin

Ecco: The Tides of Time

ESWAT: City Under Siege

Eternal Champions

Fatal Labyrinth

Flicky

Galaxy Force II

Gain Ground

Golden Axe

Golden Axe II

Golden Axe III

Gunstar Heroes

Jet Set Radio

Kid Chameleon

Landstalker: The Treasures of King Nole

Light Crusader

Mega Drive and Genesis Classic Bundle

NiGHTS into Dreams

Phantasy Star II

Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom

Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium

Ristar

SEGA Bass Fishing

Shadow Dancer

Shining Force

Shining Force II

Shining in the Darkness

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master

Sonic 3D Blast

Sonic Spinball

Space Channel 5: Part 2

Space Harrier II

Streets of Rage

Streets of Rage 2

Streets of Rage 3

Super Thunder Blade

Sword of Vermilion

The Revenge of Shinobi

ToeJam & Earl

ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkoton

VectorMan

VectorMan 2

Virtua Fighter 2

Wonder Boy in Monster World

Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair

Xbox

Altered Beast

Crazy Taxi

SEGA® Genesis Classics™

Golden Axe

Monster World

NiGHTS into Dreams

SEGA Bass Fishing

Shinobi

Sonic the Fighters

Streets of Rage

SVC: ToeJam & Earl

Virtua Fighter 2

Nintendo Switch

SEGA® Genesis Classics™

Playstation

SEGA® Genesis Classics™

[kuntakoochie]

I made this drunk off of 3 glasses of wine one night

[cmykristyart]

Space Groove Viktor (Legendary) 🕺🪩

Let's build some robots, force people to dance, and shove the space president into a mech-- ah! Wrong game.

Basically, what if Purge from Space Channel 5 was a hardworking and totally not lobotomized father of two cats? No Messiah Complex here, folks, absolutely not. And, yes, the coat comes off when Perfect Storm is ready and stuff gets serious. (ref)

[bmpmp3]

i do wish i was better at communicating with people online and through technology. i wander into conversations and make new ones all the time irl with random people and its fun but im like hyping myself to type out a single response to a Post. and to say nothing of how difficult it is to get me to say something in a discord server

[cartoonlens]

More audrey drawings

[thevioletscout]

(WARNING, the video contains a flickering overlay that may be unpleasant for someone with flash sensitivity)

So awhile back my zucchini @jackgiggles / @emotional-support-cultist showed me this post by @multi-level-shipper and @inkdemonapologist and it got me thinking about what a full version of a Bendy themed parody of Cell Block Tango would sound like. I happen to have some editing software, so I grabbed everything I needed, Jack made some amazing art of a vinyl disc, and now we have this!

I present, the Ink Blot Tango! (or how the studio unionized against Joey Drew)

I like to think of this as a murder mystery where someone- perhaps one of the other studio employees like Norman, Shawn, and/or Wally- is trying to figure out who murdered Joey, learning the suspect's motivations and they're all going "I didn't do it, but could you blame me if I did?" Plot twist, it was everyone except Henry. He fell asleep at his desk and not even Joey's blood curdling screams could wake him up.